Over the past few months, we’ve been working with SCA, a global hygiene and forest products company, to launch Life Inspiring Careers. With a goal of increasing recruitment for their sites across the globe, Life Inspiring Careers brings to the forefront careers that have real meaning, employees who are continuously challenged and enjoy what they do, and a company that contributes to the betterment of society and the environment.

To show exactly how fun it can be to work at SCA (and to reach Gen Y), we got creative with our video shoot. Check out how we tackled the Mystery Careers shoot with cool equipment and a bit of ingenuity:

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This year has been a pivotal year for ZN – one that has been marked by remarkable growth across all spectrums.

I am very proud of my team and what we have achieved together. Individually, as a team, and as an entire company, we have grown. I believe that it is our people, fueled by a passion to learn new things and innovate, who make all the difference. We’ve had a lot to do the past several months and everyone’s plates were quite full, but no one was overwhelmed because the team was solid. Everyone came together and collaborated to ensure that we would deliver what we promised.

By keeping digital at the heart of communication, seeing the bigger picture, and welcoming change, we now have even better services. We have more training and coaching skills, media and technical skills, branding and editorial expertise, and a strong network of partners who collaborate with us on complex projects.

And everything works seamlessly well together because of our clients who have also embraced ZN’s philosophy. We are partners with our clients and we succeed when they succeed. Our business relationships have blossomed into fruitful collaborations.

All of these combined have led to ZN making its major step:

We have more clients and more projects, a turnover growth of around 45%, and a book that crystallizes 14 years of experience.

I believe that we have a bright future together and I know that next year, I’ll be confirming another successful year. So I want to finish by thanking all of you, from the ZN team to our clients and our partners, for your trust, involvement, collaboration, and commitment. Together, we have become catalysts of growth, innovation, and change.

Next week, there will be an opportunity for communicators to dig deeper into the challenges and opportunities created by the rise of social media.

This conference created by Luke Brynley Jones – @lbrynleyjones, founder and blogger of oursocialtimes.com, is taking place in Brussels for the first time on Wednesday 26 September, for more information go to: Social CRM 2012.

The name itself raises questions that marketeers are dealing with everyday.  What is the impact of social technologies on our marketing, and how can we adapt our strategy to make the most of these tools?  More practically, how can move to a ‘social’ form of CRM, where a brand can connect to its customers through a multiplicity of channels?

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New day, new project.

In our creative department, each day brings a new challenge. From branding to strategy, from a simple wireframe to the final development, the whole process of corporate communication involves plenty of decisions, and rounds of feedback before a project is approved. That’s business as usual for all agencies.

But at the heart of each new design project there is something in common: the germ, the essence. It’s that moment when the core idea germinates as the team brainstorms around different ideas and concepts. Collectively there’s a “wow that’s IT!” moment when we all see the main concept floating in our minds. In that moment, we feel really good because we know it’s the right one for our client.

From there, the process accelerates. Design, development, construction, editing, broadcasting, etc. The project starts to have a life of its own and things (new ideas?) just happen all around you.

Watch out: this is potentially the most dangerous moment when the so called Frankenstein Effect can occur. Read more

At a recent event, I was delighted to see most of the exhibitors had QR codes on their display posters.  A what I hear you cry?! A QR code or Quick Response code is this strange square image on the left here. QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes, which can hold way more information than a standard bar code. You can scan them with an app on your smart phone. I use i-nigma, a free one I found on the App Store.

So of course with phone in hand, I had a go. Admittedly I’m a bit of a geek, so I found it really exciting to scan a code and see where it would take me. The exhibitor’s chose to direct traffic to their websites, rather than invest in dedicated landing pages. This is totally understandable because QR codes are a bit ahead of the curve in Brussels and not many people will know what to do with them. However it got my mind racing. So here’s my two cents worth on what you could do with this kind of technology.

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“99.9996253% of Web Analytics reports produced are utterly useless,” Avinash Kaushik writes on his blog Occam’s Razor. One of the reasons for such a bold statement is that out of the box standard reports present data in the aggregate. Without segmentation our analysis is focused on unrecognisable blobs of traffic.

If you share tons of content with your visitors, you will probably want to know which content, subjects or authors are most engaging, what type (article, video, etc.) visitors value more, and ultimately which content delivers business value.

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I had nice surprise this morning when I saw the hang tag we designed for Dole pineapples at the supermarket. It was amazing to confront one of our designs in real life! Read more

The connecting nature of the web provides invaluable opportunities for business – and for growth. It has never been easier to share information, tasks and responsibilities with people across the world. But how do we make the most of this – and how do we ensure that we capitalize on emerging technology and innovation? How do we ensure that we use the cutting edge of Web development to maximise the potential for growth in business?

ZN will be hosting an event on October 27th 2010, on how the web can boost your business, focussing in particular on how to use the Internet effectively in a multinational environment:

How the Web can help you
grow your business

27 October 2010 at 16h30
ING Brussels (more info)

Please register beforehand through:
ZN site
IABC site

We have invited a panel of experts to share their experiences and tips on the best way to approach an ebusiness project in a large corporate environment. Panelists include:

• Philippe Ruttens – Lead Generation & Online Marketing Manager (Europe) at Iron Mountain
• Eric Godefroid – Director, Citobi
• Michel Stoove – Senior SEM Strategist and Marketing Manager at Iprospect Belgium
• David Dello Stritto – Dep General Manager at Subaru Europe (TBC)
• Philip Weiss – ZN founder and managing director

After an introduction by the speakers, an open discussion with the audience will follow. We will end the evening with drinks and nibbles kindly offered by ING.

The event is free, but you must register beforehand on the ZN site or on the IABC site so that we have exact numbers of attendance, and can share the information with security. Register through IABC to see who else is coming from the organisation and to get involved in the discussions before and after the event.

Feel free to forward this to friends and colleagues who might be interested in joining through the social media sharing links below, or forward the link as is.

We look forward to seeing you there. Stay tuned to the site for more updates. Alternatively, you can use on the comment box below if you have questions.

Last year, I introduce the eBook ‘Your Online Journey Starts here’ at an event in Brussels, with Toyota, Microsoft and VCE (Volvo Construction Equipment) who shared their own experience with online communication.

We have captured a summary of my presentation which gives an overview of some of the key topics of the ebook.  It is intended as a simple introduction to how the internet is changing communication for global communicators, and what they can do about it.  To find out more check the video (below) or download the ebook (below).

Apologies for the poor sound quality!

We have reached the point in the year when we all feel compelled to make predictions (or perhaps just me).  So here goes:

1. Financial crisis will get worse, hit rock bottom and start getting better but reports will continue to be gloomy.  Towards the end of the year a slow and painful recovery will be under way.

2. Expect a few more dramatic surprises in the economic sector (more countries going under?) and companies doing things they have never done before.

3. Advertising and marketing budget will remain frozen – leading to the start of  reorganisation of the marketing organisation (firing of people and suppliers)

4. The Web will be the only channel that continues to grow – getting the attention of CEO level as core business tool (often for the first time since the last bubble)

5. Change in advertising will be permanent – as in: no going back to the old ways of excessive spending on TV and traditional advertising (although some milder form will be back in the later part of the year)

6. Social networks will continue to grow, more scandals will emerge on privacy and consumers will continue to ignore them

7. Someone will try coining Web 3.0 but people will resist as they will still be recovering from Web 2.0

8. Technological innovation will continue and the mobile phone will begin to appear as the next main channel for internet consumption

9. Obama will create a new american image and will benefit from an extended honeymoon period (and a virtual absence of organised opposition) which will take him into 2010 (at which point he will remain popular, but opposition will start returning and the republicans will start reforming)